New knot from solid wood made using new knife

This is two projects in one. Friend of mine gave me very old and chipped straight shaving razor. I decided to put that steel to the test. With torch I heated up the back of the blade until it turn to blue color, just to soften a bit. Then I shaped it and made a handle from oak. Sharpening of the blade was done by hand on water stones and honing on japanese water stone 4000 and finished on lather with honing compound. I have to say the quality of steel is superb…

To put my new carving knife to test I decided to make a knot from cherry. I just had to carve the wood in every possible directions to the grain. The only machinery I use to make several 3mm holes (6 to be exact). All carving up to splitting the wood in the cross sections was done with the newly made knife. Because the knifes tip has three sharp edges I did scraping with the same knife. I had to use x-acto knife and 320 sand paper to split and finish wood crossing parts.

Final polishing I did by hand with cotton cloth and wax. And now I have valentine’s day present …

It took me one weekend to make knife and one weekend on the knot. Woodworking is my hobby and I wish I can spend more time in my little basement shop.

Mafe, I didn’t have to harden the steel because I only heat up the tail and the back leaving the blade as cool as possible. During heating I was watching the color change from the tail/back side to the front/blade. When the middle started to go yellowish I stopped it. So, my blade and tip are as hard as ware before heating. In fact, I can still shave my hand hair with this knife after I made the knot :)